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Improve Operations & Maintenance

Every building's energy consumption can benefit from rigorous operations and maintenance (O&M) practices. Properly planned and executed O&M is one of the most cost-effective strategies for ensuring equipment longevity, reliability, safety, and energy efficiency in commercial buildings. By one estimate, O&M measures cost about 20 times less and achieve roughly the same energy savings as energy efficiency upgrades. There are various opportunities to improve efficiency through O&M that can be discovered through efforts such as engaging tenants, training building staff, and conducting continuous commissioning.

The Building Technologies Office develops guides, tools, and other resources that help building owners and managers capitalize on the efficiency gains of O&M. The Energy Asset Score provides a standard way to evaluate the energy efficiency of existing buildings, to help in making O&M decisions. BTO has also developed task analyses that guide the O&M workforce in determining the tasks needed to properly conduct O&M procedures. Additional government resources are provided throughout this site and in the section below.

Key Resources

Measurement and Verification PortalLearn about various measurement and verification guidelines, tools, documents, and trainings at this Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Web page.

Guide to Building CommissioningLearn how to save money and energy by helping ensure that your building's systems and equipment are installed and working correctly and efficiently in this guide from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.